Labyrinth of Souls

Labyrinth of Souls

Here you will find complete listing of all things related to Dungeon Solitaire and the Labyrinth of Souls, including various incarnations of the game, the complete line of stand-alone novels published by ShadowSpinners Press, and information on new developments. The Dungeon Solitaire games are designed and written by Matthew Lowes. Labyrinth of Souls and Devil’s Playground games and fiction feature exclusive artwork by Josephe Vandel. The Labyrinth of Souls novels are written by a lineup of incredibly talented, veteran, and award-winning authors.

GAMES

Dungeon Solitaire: Labyrinth of Souls is a fantasy game for tarot cards. Defeat monsters, disarm traps, open door, and navigate mazes as you explore a dangerous dungeon. Collect treasure and magic items, gain skills, and gather companions. But beware, the dungeon is vast, and death awaits those who linger too long. If your torches burn out you will be lost forever in the darkness. If your rations run dry, you will starve or go mad. And dungeon itself is a force of corruption, threatening all who enter.

Includes Basic, Expert, and Advance Rules, as well as six game variations: Two-Player Cooperative, Dragon’s Lair, Undead Hordes, Mega-Dungeon, Campaign Mode, and Cartomancy. Playable with any tarot deck, but best enjoyed with exclusive Labyrinth of Souls tarot cards, exclusively illustrated by Josephe Vandel.

Dungeon Solitaire: Devil’s Playground is a fantasy adventure card game. Fight monstrous diabolisms, overcome obstacles, and endure misfortunes as you delve into the darkest dungeon in a quest to defeat three powerful demons. Along the way you will collect treasure and unique magic items, encounter strange locales, and acquire three divine graces. But beware, the dungeon is deep and even if you survive all immediate dangers, a fate worse than death awaits those who linger too long. You may face starvation and insanity, terrible curses and demonic possession, forever haunted, in the darkness of the pit.

Includes the Devil’s Playground stand-alone game and a two-player cooperative mode, multiple expansion rules for the Dungeon Solitaire: Labyrinth of Souls tarot card game, four variants of Dungeon War, and guidelines for fortune telling using the Devil’s Playground card deck. For one or two players. Most of the games require the Devil’s Playground cards, available separately. Expansion rules also require the Labyrinth of Souls rulebook and cards.

The original Dungeon Solitaire game will always be available for free!

Dungeon Solitaire is a fantasy adventure card game for a single player and standard deck of playing cards. The 12 page rulebook is available as a free pdf download. All you need is a deck of cards. You’ll venture into a vast dungeon in search of the tomb hordes of four legendary kings. Risking death and doom, you’ll slay monsters, bypass traps, and bash in stuck doors, all for fortune and glory!

A winning game walkthrough is included to help you learn the game. This is the perfect introduction to Dungeon Solitaire. The Tomb of Four Kings rules are nearly identical to the basic rules of Dungeon Solitaire: Labyrinth of Souls. If you’ve learned this game you’ll be ready for Labyrinth of Souls expert and advanced rules.

*Also available in a Spanish Edition, translated by Pablo Sancho Fernández.

FICTION

The Labyrinth of Souls is a manifestation of a mythic underworld, existing at a crossroads between people and cultures, between time and space, between the physical world and the deepest reaches of the psyche. It is a dark mirror held up to human experience, in which you may find your dreams… or your doom. Each Labyrinth of Souls novel features an stand-alone adventure into a unique vision of a mythic underworld. Get ready to delve into the Labyrinth in a totally new way!

While hydrologist Adam Swan is engaged in humanitarian efforts to bring water to a small, isolated village in the Congo, he is kidnapped by rebel thugs and thrown into a makeshift prison. He is left to die—or worse—if his ransom is not paid. In a surprising series of events, Adam escapes his brutal captors into an underground labyrinth where reality and sanity no longer rule. Armed with a limited amount of magic which he does not understand, he survives by employing it boldly, recklessly, desperate to return to the village above, homesick for Minnesota and normal life with his wife and daughters. Tested to the extreme limits of his endurance, Adam navigates the labyrinth with only the company of his past behavior, the baffling magic, and the seductive temptation to succumb to the mysterious and merciless gods of the underworld. The consequences of his actions, past present, and future, take him to the brink of death—and beyond.

Death is stalking The City. From out of the catacombs, a deadly monster has arisen. Unfortunately for alchemist’s apprentice Remy the Rat Boy, his master is away and it’s up to Remy to discover the nature of the monster and put an end to its killing rampage. His search for answers takes him high into the elegant chambers of the city’s elite, and down into long forgotten ruins, into depths untraveled and unimagined for centuries. Lost in the ancient ruins with only ghosts and creatures of the darkness for companionship, Remy must use every ounce of wit and conjure every scrap of magic at his disposal in order to survive the labyrinth and save The City from its shadow self.

Rithik is a hunter of artifacts among the ancient cities of a long-gone, advanced civilization. Infected with ghost flesh, a fatal disease caught in the ruins, he is banished from his village and must find his way in the wastelands. With the help of a mutant dog, he ventures into the post-apocalyptic underworld in search of the answers to life and death. In the dark forgotten depths, they discover extraordinary secrets and terrible dangers hidden by the catastrophic downfall of ages past. And in the farthest reaches of the labyrinth, Rithik must face the greatest enigma of all—himself.

An incredible journey from the creator of the Dungeon Solitaire: Labyrinth of Souls tarot card game.

One human soul and a little respect isn’t too much to ask for, but both are hard to get if you’ve only been a death for a thousand years. Shunned by other grim reapers, Littlest Death yearns for the respect given to deaths who bring human souls from Overworld into Underworld. She has only been a grim reaper for a thousand years, but she works hard at the jobs she’s given. Really hard! No other death gathers in MILLIONS of souls at a time like she does. Okay, they are just the souls of fungi, bacteria, and single-celled critters like amoebas, but—MILLIONS! If she could bring in just one human soul, the other deaths would stop looking down on her. She sets out to spy on the most accomplished death in the history of dying, Oldest Death. She figures she can learn a few things from him. And, of course, she does. She just doesn’t learn what she thought she would learn, and the learning comes hard. Desperate to become a real death, frustrated by humans and their attachments to one another, hounded by a Hell Puppy, ridiculed by other deaths, and undermined by her own ambition, she journeys the Earth and the Underworld in search of a trick that will let her gain the respect she believes she deserves. Unfortunately, her actions hurt the living, undermine the natural order, and threaten the eternal flow of souls between life and death. By the time she understands the damage she’s done, it may be too late to save herself and the souls she has hurt.

Sandy’s comfortable, workaday life is rocked when he meets Lark, a mysterious woman who can manipulate time and teleport across great distances at will. What begins as a romance turns deadly when she is abducted by a sorcerer who seeks to control the metaphysical portals she defends. Determined to rescue her, Sandy is drawn farther and farther from the life he knows, into the wondrous and perilous Labyrinth of Souls. There he meets fantastic allies and adversaries, and learns that the very fabric of reality is threatened by his quest.

When a creature of the treetops listens to the song of a snake, she finds herself drawn into an adventure deep under the earth. Witch-Hazel was never good at being a squirrel. She could never find her lost stashes of acorns, but maybe she can prove herself by finding a treasure that matters much more — the lost Celestial Fragments of the All-Being. Witch-Hazel’s quest takes her through labyrinths, lost mole cities, and underground kingdoms. She faces riddles from a leontaur, an army of ghost moles, and sorcerer crabs, but she also makes unexpected friends. Can Witch-Hazel find the Celestial Fragments and make it back to the sunlight world above? If she survives, will she be the same squirrel who began her journey, or has she been forever changed by the snake’s song?

DEVELOPMENT

Dungeon Solitaire: Devil’s Playground is a new stand-alone Dungeon Solitaire game that can also be used as an expansion deck for Dungeon Solitaire: Labyrinth of Souls.

To delve the most dangerous dungeon you will have to fight horrific monsters, disarm fiendish traps, and open the very gates of hell to expose and overthrow the demonic forces that vie for control of your destiny. Along the way you may find powerful magic items, encounter strange locales, and master the powerful blessings of three graces. But beware, the dungeon is deep, and death—or worse—awaits those who linger too long.

The Kickstarter was a huge success! Expect a public release in late August.

DUNGEON SOLITAIRE

Labyrinth of Souls Computer & Mobile App

Play all your favorite Dungeon Solitaire games on a computer, tablet, or mobile phone. The Dungeon Solitaire Labyrinth of Souls computer and mobile app will be an electronic version of tarot card game, available across multiple platforms.

A free edition will be available with the basic game only, and a for-purchase edition will include basic, expert, and advanced games, along with some of the variants included in the original rulebook.

Dungeon Solitaire Reviews

"Since its release, I've been playing game after game when I can find the time, and this solo card game is exactly what I tried cobbling together years ago. It's an amazing game ..." --Tim Snider, The Savage Afterworld

"The best thing going for DS-LoS is that it's a lot of fun. If the Labyrinth of Souls were only a Tarot deck, it'd still be great, but what really pushes it over the top is that the game for which the deck was made is terrific fun." --James Bulls, Left Hand Tarot

"Dungeon Solitaire is incredibly rich and thought-provoking. This game takes you by surprise." --Geoffrey Greer, Past Go Gaming

We all have seen a few experiments with D&D and poker cards, but this is the one that finally pulls it off. Smart, fast, elegant, easy to learn and a lot of fun. Absolutely recommended! --Ronnie Rocket, Google+

"It is called Dungeon Solitaire ... and it is brilliant." --John Payne, Sycarion Diversions